Nevada News Bureau Staff: Secretary of State Ross Miller today asked the state Board of Examiners to adopt a new rule requiring private employers who are awarded state contracts to use the federal E-Verify® program to ensure that only eligible workers are hired at their companies.
Miller asked that the board take up the issue at its next meeting in January.
Miller is also urging all employers in the state to voluntarily use E-Verify®, an electronic program that verifies the eligibility of their employees once they’re hired.
The program, authorized by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, compares information from a new hire’s Form I-9 to other federal records to determine if the employee is eligible to work in the United States. Federal officials say the system is fast and accurate, matching data to millions of records kept by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and providing results within seconds.
“This is a quick and easy way for employers to gain some peace of mind, knowing that their new hires are in fact eligible to work in this country,” Miller said. “Not only is it the law, and therefore good business, but with so many Nevadans out of work, we must also make sure that the available jobs we do have are filled by qualified, eligible workers.”
E-Verify® is administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, USCIS, and the SSA. About 1,400 Nevada employers are already signed up to use the system, which provides 24-hour secure access, instant results, interactive training to get set up, and full customer service. Nearly a quarter million employers are signed up nationwide, ranging from small mom-and-pop stores to multinational corporations.
